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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

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Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.    2015, Vol. 9 Issue (5) : 912-918    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-015-0789-7
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Ecotoxicological effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles on soil microorganisms
Zhaoyi SHEN,Zhuo CHEN,Zhen HOU,Tingting LI,Xiaoxia LU()
Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes (Ministry of Education), College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
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Abstract

The widespread production and use of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) in recent years have posed potential threat to the ecosystem. This study aimed to investigate the ecotoxicological effect of ZnO-NPs on soil microorganisms using laboratory microcosm test. Respiration, ammonification, dehydrogenase (DH) activity, and fluorescent diacetate hydrolase (FDAH) activity were used as ecotoxicological parameters. The results showed that in the neutral soil treated with 1 mg ZnO-NPs per g soil (fresh, neutral), ammonification was significantly inhibited during the study period of three months, but the inhibition rate decreased over increasing time. Inhibition in respiration was observed in the first month of the test. In various ZnO-NPs treatments (1 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg ZnO-NPs per g soil), DH activity and FDAH activity were inhibited during the study period of one month. For both enzyme activities, there were positive dose–response relationships between the concentration of ZnO-NPs and the inhibition rates, but the curves changed over time due to changes of ZnO-NPs toxicity. Soil type affected the toxicity of ZnO-NPs in soil. The toxicity was highest in the acid soil, followed by the neutral soil. The toxicity was relatively low in the alkaline soil. The toxicity was not accounted for by the Zn2+ released from the ZnO-NPs. Direct interaction of ZnO-NPs with biologic targets might be one of the reasons. The adverse effect of ZnO-NPs on soil microorganisms in neutral and acid soils is worthy of attention.
Keywords zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs)      soil microorganisms      respiration      ammonification      dehydrogenase (DH) activity      fluorescent diacetate hydrolase (FDAH) activity     
Corresponding Author(s): Xiaoxia LU   
Online First Date: 12 May 2015    Issue Date: 08 October 2015
 Cite this article:   
Zhen HOU,Tingting LI,Xiaoxia LU, et al. Ecotoxicological effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles on soil microorganisms[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2015, 9(5): 912-918.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-015-0789-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2015/V9/I5/912
properties soil type a)
acid (red soil) neutral (brown soil) alkaline (salty soil)
pH 5.5±0.1 7.1±0.3 8.5±0.3
TOC 1.2±0.1% 1.4±0.1% 0.6±0.1%
available-N 85±4.5 mg?kg−1 67.4±3.4 mg?kg−1 30.5±2.0 mg?kg−1
available-P 10.4±0.6 mg?kg−1 20.2±1.1 mg?kg−1 8.0±0.5 mg?kg−1
water content 11.8±1.2% 4.9±0.3% 10.5±1.0%
bacterial density 106 CFU g−1 soil 107 CFU g−1 soil 106 CFU g−1 soil
Tab.1  The physicochemical and biologic properties of the studied soils
Fig.1  TEM images of the studied ZnO-NPs ((a) is for size of 100 nm, (b) is for size of 0.5 µm)
Fig.2  Changes of respiration over time in the ZnO-NPs treatment and the control soil sample (neutral soil)
Fig.3  Changes of ammonification over time in the ZnO-NPs treatment and the control soil sample (neutral soil)
Fig.4  Changes of DH activity over time in various ZnO-NPs treatments and the control soil sample (neutral soil)
Fig.5  Changes of FDAH activity over time in the various ZnO-NPs treatments and the control soil sample (neutral soil)
Fig.6  Comparison of DH activity in the various ZnO-NPs treatments and the controls soil samples
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